How Social Exclusion in an Advertisement Affects Consumer Behavior

(1)

How Social Exclusion in an Advertisement Affects

Consumer Behavior

-With Perspective Taking as a Moderating Variable-

by Talisa Koopman

(2)

How Social Exclusion in an Advertisement Affects

Consumer Behavior

-With Perspective Taking as a Moderating Variable-

Master Thesis Marketing

by Talisa Koopman

Supervisors: prof. dr. B.M. Fennis dr. D. Trampe

Number of Words: 5.686

University of Groningen Faculty of Economics and Business

(3)

MANAGEMENT SUMMARY

People possess fundamental social motives designed to help them seize the opportunities and avoid the perils afforded by social living. Broadly stated, this research investigates how ancestral fundamental motives influence everyday consumer behavior. A person’s preferences, behaviors, and decision processes can change dramatically depending on which fundamental motive is currently active.

This research focuses on the fundamental motive affiliation. People have psychological mechanisms in place that help ensure that their need to belong is met. Affiliation is activated by cues that elicit social exclusion. People suffer psychologically and physically when they lack sufficient social ties. Despite the fact that social connections are central facets of a daily life, little empirical attention has been devoted to understanding how belongingness threats affect consumer behavior. It is unclear what the effects are if a person sees someone who is socially excluded and takes the perspective of that person. Therefore, this research focused on the behavioral responses of a person who sees someone in an advertisement who is socially excluded. The objective of this research was to investigate the effects of social exclusion in an advertisement on consumer behavior. It was tested whether social exclusion in an advertisement affects attitude toward the advertisement, product attraction, prosocial behavior, and emotions. Besides, it was tested whether perspective taking strengthens these relationships.

(4)

Results indicated that social exclusion in an advertisement results in a higher product attraction symbolic of group membership. Socially excluded participants were thus more likely than non-socially excluded participants to purchase a product that symbolized group membership, suggesting that excluded people are attracted to increase their chances of affiliation. Besides, there is partial support to state that social exclusion in an advertisement results in emotional numbness. Emotional numbness is the reaction to social exclusion that involves something akin to a shock reaction, which is characterized by the lack of observed emotion and marked by a relative absence of meaningful thought. Besides, this research found two main effects of perspective taking on attitude towards the advertisement and giving money to a homeless person, that is part of the variable prosocial behavior. However, these findings were contradicting with expectations. Control participants had a more positive attitude, and higher prosocial behavior in comparison with perspective taking participants. This can be explained by the fact that because the participants were asked to take the perspective of a child, this could have led to an aversion of helping a homeless person. No other hypothesized main or interaction effects were found.

Although not all relationships were significant, there is evidence to conclude that the

fundamental motive affiliation, primed by social exclusion in an advertisement, has an effect on consumer behavior. Herewith, this research contributes to existing literature by

demonstrating that ancestral fundamental motives indeed have an effect on everyday

consumer behavior. This research is one of the first to demonstrate the utility of evolutionary social psychology in marketing by showing that adopting an evolutionary approach can produce unique marketing insights. The findings of this research have theoretical and practical implications for advertising practice and the strategic placement of advertisements and

(5)

PREFACE

After five months of hard work, I proudly present my master thesis in marketing about ‘fundamental motives in consumer choice’. With much dedication and pleasure, I devoted a lot of time and worked hard to achieve this final result. Once I immersed myself in the literature of evolutionary social psychology, I am confident that people possess fundamental social motives designed to help them seize the opportunities and avoid the perils afforded by social living. As a result, I am sure that evolutionary social psychology affects consumer behavior. With my master thesis, I hope that my findings and contributions are an incentive for novel research and theory building of marketing.

The realization of my master thesis is enabled by some special people, who I would like to thank. Firstly, I did this thesis under the supervision of Professor Dr. B. M. Fennis. I want to thank Dr. B. M. Fennis for great guidance and support in writing my master thesis. Working on this thesis under his supervision, was very productive and his support was very important throughout all my work. I also would like to thank my second supervisor, Dr. D. Trampe, for her suggestions on my master thesis. Additionally, my teammates, Marije and Jildau, deserve a special thank. Together, we worked as a very strong team on our theses and helped each other very intensively. Last but not least, I would like to thank all the participants of my research who found time for participating in the experiment. Without them, it would not be possible to complete this thesis.

Talisa Koopman July 1, 2013

(6)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION ...1

2. LITERATURE REVIEW ...3

2.1 Evolutionary Social Psychology ...3

2.2 Affiliation Primed by Social Exclusion in an advertisement ...3

2.3 Attitude Toward the Advertisement ...4

2.4 Product Attraction ...4

2.5 Prosocial Behavior ...5

2.6 Emotions ...6

2.7 Perspective Taking of Someone Who is Socially Excluded...6

3. METHOD...9 3.1 Design ...9 3.2 Participants ...9 3.3 Procedure ...10 4. RESULTS ...13 5. DISCUSSION ...17 REFERENCES ...20 APPENDICES...25

APPENDIX A – PHOTOGRAPH PERSPECTIVE TAKING ...25

APPENDIX B – ADVERTISEMENTS ...26

APPENDIX C – MEASURES ...28

(7)

1

1. INTRODUCTION

Imagine, you are a marketing communication manager and you are charged with the task of creating an advertisement. You want to know how social exclusion in an advertisement affects consumer behavior and test the advertisement. The social exclusion advertisement depicts a woman ended up alone in life, because all her relationships have drifted away. Then, the question turns to the consumer seeing the advertisement: how will this influence their attitude toward the advertisement, product attraction, helping behavior, and emotions.

The behavior of the consumer seeing the advertisement can be explained by evolutionary social psychology. Kenrick, Griskevicius, Neuberg, and Schaller (2010) suggested that people possess fundamental social motives designed to help them seize the opportunities and avoid the perils afforded by social living. Yet, there is very little known about how evolved psychological mechanisms inside individuals develop, or how they influence, and are influenced by, the complex cultures that humans construct. Baumeister and Leary (1995) found that the need to belong is a fundamental human motivation. Affiliation can be activated by the presence of social exclusion (Maner, De Wall, Baumeister & Schaller, 2007). Excluded people desire to form new social connections.

Existing research on social exclusion has focused on the behavioral responses of a person who is socially excluded. It is unclear what the effects are if a person sees someone who is socially excluded and takes the perspective of that person. This research focuses on the behavioral responses of a person who sees someone in an advertisement who is socially excluded. In doing so, this research contributes to the literature in two ways. First, it extends previous research about the behavioral responses of seeing someone in an advertisement who is socially excluded. Second, it examines whether perspective taking strengthens these relationships.

The objective of this research is to contribute to the understanding of behavioral responses to seeing someone who is socially excluded. The main question is as follows:

(8)

2

(9)

3

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Evolutionary Social Psychology

According to Neuberg, Kenrick and Schaller (2010) evolutionary social psychology is about how particular cues in the social environment heuristically imply particular threats and opportunities, activate particular cognitive and affective mechanisms, and thereby incline individuals toward particular behaviors. People possess fundamental social motives designed to help them seize the opportunities and avoid the perils afforded by social living (Kenrick, Griskevicius, Neuberg, & Schaller, 2010). According to Griskevicius and Kenrick (2013), there are seven fundamental motives: (1) self-protection, (2) disease avoidance, (3) affiliation, (4) status, (5) mate acquisition, (6) mate retention, and (7) kin care. This research focuses on the fundamental motive affiliation.

2.2 Affiliation Primed by Social Exclusion in an advertisement

The need to belong is a fundamental human motivation, because a social group afforded survival and safety throughout evolutionary history (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). Humans have always lived in groups. Our ancestors always formed coalitions and get along with other people to survive (Hill & Hurtado, 1996). Baumeister and Leary (1995) also found that people suffer psychologically and physically when they lack sufficient social ties. Given these

negative effects associated with belonging, people have psychological mechanisms in place that help ensure that their need to belong is met. Affiliation is activated by cues that elicit social exclusion. Social exclusion denotes all phenomena in which one person is put into a condition of being alone or is denied social contact (Blackhart, Nelson, Knowles &

Baumeister, 2009). There is evidence that social exclusion heightens people's desire to form new social connections (Maner et al., 2007). There is no evidence about how people behave when they see someone who is socially excluded and take the perspective of that socially excluded person. This research proposes that people seeing someone in an advertisement who is socially excluded, take over the feelings of that socially excluded person and behave just like the socially excluded person. Therefore, it is expected that people seeing someone in an advertisement who is socially excluded are also inclined to form new social connections. As will be explained in more detail in the method section, this research designed an

(10)

4

he or she will be socially included. In other words, the product in the social exclusion advertisement is responsible for the social inclusion of the excluded person.

2.3 Attitude Toward the Advertisement

According to Fazio, Sanbonmatsu, Powell, and Kardes (1986), an attitude is automatically activated from memory, which stores the associations between advertisements and their evaluation in memory. Attitude toward the advertisement can be defined as the individual's favorable or unfavorable evaluation of the advertising appeal to which he or she has been exposed (MacKenzie & Lutz, 1989). Attitude toward the advertisement can be influenced by the emotions (both positive and negative) elicited by exposure to an advertising appeal (Bagozzi & Moore, 1994). It is stated that social exclusion in an advertisement is seen as a negative advertisement, because people suffer psychologically and physically when they lack sufficient social ties. Evidence about the effects of using negative framing as an advertising tactic is mixed. Bradley, Angelini, and Lee (2007) found that negative advertisements tend to activate the aversive motivational system, suggesting that negative ads may backfire. Other research has shown that negative messages have powerful effects (Merritt, 1984). An explanation for this effect is that the message of negative advertisements may be more retrievable from memory and are therefore better remembered than positive advertisements (Faber, Tims & Schmitt, 1933). Additionally, Lee & Shrum (2012) found that social exclusion can produce charitable behavior that can be defined as being kind or lenient in one's attitude towards others. Given the previous, it is expected that by activating the need to belong through social exclusion in an advertisement, people become charitable and benevolent, which leads to a positive connotation. As a result, this may cause a more positive attitude toward the advertisement. Besides, because the product in the advertisement is responsible for social inclusion, consumer may create a positive attitude toward the advertisement. Hence, it is expected that seeing someone in an advertisement who is socially excluded will lead to a more positive attitude toward the advertisement. This leads to the first hypothesis of this research:

H1: Social exclusion in an advertisement results in a more positive attitude toward the advertisement.

2.4 Product Attraction

(11)

5

social reconnection through means such as affiliative spending. Mead, Baumeister, Stillmann, Rawn and Vohs (2011) found that excluded people are more likely to buy a product symbolic of group membership. It is expected that when a person sees someone who is socially excluded, this person takes over the feeling of the socially excluded person and also feels socially excluded. As a result, this heightens the product attraction symbolic of group membership. Based on this, it is expected that if a person sees someone in an advertisement who is socially excluded, this will heighten the product attraction symbolic of group membership. As will be discussed furthermore in the method section, in this research, spirit bands are used as a product symbolic of group membership and a package of pens are used as a practical product. In summary:

H2: Social exclusion in an advertisement results in a higher product attraction symbolic of group membership.

2.5 Prosocial Behavior

Prosocial behavior is an umbrella term used to describe intentional actions to help or benefit others, such as helpful interventions, volunteer work, and donating money or blood (Weinstein & Ryan, 2010). The relationship between social exclusion and prosocial behavior has shown to produce a wide variety of behavioral responses. One research found that social exclusion reduces prosocial behavior (Twenge, Baumeister, DeWall, Ciarocco & Bartels, 2007). Other research has shown that being excluded should threaten relational needs such as belonging because it sends clear signals that one is not valued by a particular person or group. When these needs are threatened, individuals may seek ways to reconnect with society through more prosocial responses (Lee & Shrum, 2012). These inconsistencies make it interesting to further examine this relationship.

(12)

6

H3: Social exclusion in an advertisement results in higher prosocial behavior. 2.6 Emotions

The prediction that social exclusion will cause negative emotions seems straightforward. Although, the emotional distress theory has not received much support (Twenge, Baumeister, Tice, & Stucke, 2001; Twenge, Catanese, & Baumeister, 2003). Twenge et al. (2001) explain that the lack of observed emotion is the reaction to social exclusion that involves something akin to a shock reaction, in which the excluded person becomes emotionally numb. This could ward off the emotional distress that might otherwise arise by defensively isolating affect and keeping negative feelings out of awareness (Massong, Dickson, Ritzler & Layne, 1982). This inner state of numbness has been characterized as one of cognitive deconstruction, which is marked by a relative absence of meaningful thought, and lethargy, all of which may be driven by the attempt to escape from aversive self-awareness (Baumeister, 1990). Socially excluded participants should report less happiness when indicating their emotional reaction to a positive event and less sadness and distress when indicating their emotional reaction to a negative event. In contrast, control participants should overestimate their happiness and sadness to possible future events (Wilson, Wheatley, Kurtz, Dunn, & Gilbert, 2004). People may use the deconstructed state as a defense against the negative experience of social exclusion. Based on this, it is expected that when people see someone in an advertisement who is socially excluded, they take over that feeling of emotional numbness. In summary:

H4: Social exclusion in an advertisement results in emotional numbness. 2.7 Perspective Taking of Someone Who is Socially Excluded

This research supposes that perspective taking moderates the role of social exclusion in an advertisement on attitude toward the advertisement, product attraction, prosocial behavior, and emotions. Perspective taking is a cognitive process in which individuals adopt others’ viewpoints in an attempt to understand their preferences, values, and needs (Parker & Axtell, 2001). In modern theories of the self, as well as in evolutionary thought, important features of the self can be located outside of the person and inside others. In addition, this lead people to see parts of their selves in others.

(13)

7

turn, the product in the advertisement that is responsible for social inclusion can lead to a more positive attitude toward the advertisement. It is supposed that perspective taking of someone who is socially excluded strengthens the relationship between social exclusion in an advertisement and attitude toward the advertisement.

The impact of self-other overlap has also been shown in the context of intergroup relations. Internalization of the same group concept gives way to uniform behavior and accounts for phenomena as social influence (Turner & Reynolds, 2000). As stated earlier, people who want to belong to a group, are attracted to products symbolic of group membership. As a result, people who adopt the perspective of someone who is socially excluded, can be inclined to belong to a group and therefore attracted to products symbolic of group membership. Based on this, it is supposed that perspective taking of someone who is socially excluded strengthens the relationship between social exclusion in an advertisement and product attraction symbolic of group membership.

People can feel empathy for the person who is socially excluded. Empathy-associated helping is not selfless but is rooted in the desire to help that part of the self that is located in the other (Neuberg, Cialdini, Brown, Luce, Sagarin, & Lewis, 1997). Hornstein (1978), and Lerner and Meindl (1981) state that the imagine perspective creates the conditions for self other identification. Having become one with the person need, people adopting this perspective feel empathic emotion and act to help. Therefore, it is expected that perspective taking of someone who is socially excluded strengthens the relationship between social exclusion in an advertisement and prosocial behavior.

(14)

8

In conclusion:

H5: Perspective taking of someone who is socially excluded strengthens the relationship between social exclusion in an advertisement and a) attitude toward the advertisement, b) product attraction symbolic of group membership, c) prosocial behavior, and d) emotions.

(15)

9 3. METHOD 3.1 Design

An Internet experiment was conducted to test the effect of social exclusion in an advertisement on product attraction symbolic of group membership, prosocial behavior, emotions, and attitude toward the advertisement. Besides, it was tested whether perspective taking of someone who is socially excluded strengthens these relationships.

The design includes two groups; the experimental group in which the affiliation motive was primed by social exclusion in an advertisement, and the control group in which the affiliation motive was not primed. In addition, the experimental group and the control group also consisted of two groups; one group in which perspective taking was manipulated, and another group in which perspective taking was not manipulated. With this, four different conditions arise. These are displayed in table 1. Based on the conditions, a 2 (social exclusion in an advertisement: yes vs. no) x 2 (perspective taking: yes vs. no) between subjects factorial design is created.

TABLE 1

2x2 between subjects factorial design

Affiliation motive prime No prime Perspective taking Condition 1 Condition 3

No perspective taking Condition 2 Condition 4

3.2 Participants

Eighty-four people (53 female, 31 male; Mage = 27.38, SD = 9.34) participated in this experiment. Participants were selected by the use of snowball sampling, which means sampling from colleagues, friends or associates. Participants were contacted by e-mail and social media to participate in the internet experiment and were asked to send the e-mail to other people. Participants voluntarily participated in the experiment and could open the link of the experiment at their own computer in their own time. The link randomly assigned a

(16)

10 3.3 Procedure

This experimental research consisted of two phases: a pretest and the main experiment. The first phase was a pretest to remove ambiguities which improved the questionnaire. In the pretest five respondents identified potential problems. After that, adjustments were made by the researcher. The second part was the actual experiment to test the hypotheses. The experiment was conducted in Dutch, to increase the respondents’ understandability. Appendix D includes the experiments for the four different conditions.

The experiment consisted of seven parts. In the first part, half of the participants received the perspective taking instructions. These participants were asked to take the perspective of the photographed person and to write a story about a day in her life. The other half of the participants received other instructions. They were asked to write a story about a day in the life of the photographed person without the perspective taking instructions. After this, half of the participants were exposed to the social exclusion advertisement, while the other half of the participants were exposed to an advertisement without social exclusion. Subsequently, all participants completed the same questions regarding the attitude toward the advertisement, product attraction, helping behaviour and emotions. Each part will be extensively explained below.

After the participants opened the experimental website, they were navigated to an instruction webpage.

Perspective taking of someone who is socially excluded. Upon completion of the demographic

questions, perspective taking of someone who is socially excluded is manipulated by adapting the procedure of Galinsky and Moskowitz (2000). All participants were shown a photograph of a socially excluded person, see appendix A. Control participants were asked to write about a typical day in the life of the photographed socially excluded person without further instructions. Perspective taking participants were asked to take the perspective of the socially excluded person: “Imagine a day in the life of this person as if you were that person, looking at the world through her eyes and walking through the world in her shoes”. Prior research demonstrated that these conditions produce reliable differences in perspective taking (Galinsky & Moskowitz, 2000; Galinsky, Wang, & Ku 2008).

Social exclusion in an advertisement. Thereafter, an advertisement was created for both the

(17)

11

group, the affiliation motive is activated by simulating the presence of social exclusion. These participants were shown an advertisement which depicted someone who is socially excluded, because the person did not used the advertised product. The control participants were shown an advertisement where the affiliation motive was not activated by social exclusion. Hereby, the socially excluded person is removed and the advertisement depicted people together having a great time, because they used the advertised product. See appendix B for an overview of both advertisements.

Dependent measures

Attitude toward the advertisement. The first dependent variable, attitude toward the

advertisement, was measured on an Aad scale adopted from Biehal, Stephens and Curlo (1992), MacKenzie and Lutz (1989) and Hampel, Heinrich and Campbell (2012). This scale consists of seven 7-point items indicating how participants judge the advertisements, such as (1) “bad” and (7) “good”. The higher the score, the higher the attitude toward the advertisement. See table C1 in appendix C for a clear overview of all the statements used to measure the attitude toward the advertisement. As expected, the seven attitude toward the advertisement measures showed a similar pattern (α = .882), and are combined for the analysis.

Product attraction. Thereafter, product attraction, was measured using an adapted scale of

Mead et al. (2011). Research of Mead et al. (2011) found out that spirit-bands can be classified as a symbolic product and a package of pens as a practical product. Participants were asked to what extent they were attracted to the spirit-bands and a package of pens on a 7- point scale (ranging from (1) “totally unattracted” to (7) “totally attracted”). The questions are shown in appendix C, table C2.

Prosocial behavior. The third dependent variable, prosocial behavior was measured by

(18)

12

Emotions. Following that, emotions were measured by the Positive and Negative Affect Scale

(PANAS) adopted from Watson, Clark, and Tellegen (1988). This scale consists of ten positive and ten negative feelings and emotions, such as interested and scared. Participants read each item and then list the number from the scale (ranging from (1) “very slightly” to (7) “extremely”) indicating to what extent they felt that moment. The whole list of items is shown in table C4 in appendix C. As expected, the ten positive PANAS measures showed a similar pattern (α = .868), and are combined in one positive measure. The ten negative PANAS measures also showed a similar pattern (α = .857), and are also combined in one negative measure.

(19)

13

4. RESULTS

Attitude toward the advertisement. A 2 (social exclusion in an advertisement: yes vs. no) x 2

(perspective taking: yes vs. no) full factorial ANOVA on attitude toward the advertisement was conducted. There was no main effect of social exclusion in an advertisement (F(1, 80) = .00, p = .989). There is not enough evidence to accept hypothesis 1. The main effect of perspective taking was marginally significant (F(1,80) = 3.50, p = .065). However, inspection of the means showed an effect in contrast with expectations. Perspective takers reported a less positive attitude toward the advertisement than control participants, see table 2. The interaction effect failed to reach significance (F(1,80) = .01, p = .921). In addition, there is not enough evidence to support hypothesis 5b, stating that perspective taking of someone who was socially excluded strengthens the relationship between social exclusion in an advertisement and attitude toward the advertisement.

TABLE 2

Perspective taking - Attitude toward the advertisement Mean Standard deviation

Perspective taking 3.28 1.00

Control 3.73 1.15

Product attraction. To test the effect of social exclusion on product attraction, and to test if

(20)

14

was no main effect of social exclusion in an advertisement (F(1, 80) = 1.008, p = .318). Additionally, the main effect of perspective taking also failed to reach significance (F(1, 80) = .422, p = .518). The results of the interaction effect also did not reach significance (F(1, 80) = 2.542, p = .115). From these results can be concluded that there is no effect of social exclusion on practical products. Besides, there is not enough evidence to conclude that perspective taking of someone who is socially excluded strengthens the relationship between social exclusion in an advertisement and a practical product. In conclusion, socially excluded participant are only attracted to spirit bands as a symbolic and not to a package of pens as a practical product.

TABLE 3

Social exclusion in an advertisement - Product attraction Mean Standard deviation

Social exclusion 3.62 2.04

Control 2.74 1.65

Prosocial behavior. Next is tested if seeing someone in an advertisement who is socially

(21)

15 TABLE 4

Perspective taking - Prosocial behavior

Mean Standard deviation

Homeless person Perspective taking

Control

3.19 4.05

1.71 1.64

Emotions. As mentioned in the literature review, to indicate emotional numbness, socially

(22)

16 TABLE 5

Social exclusion in an advertisement - Emotions

Mean Standard deviation

Positive Perspective taking

Control

4.37 4.91

(23)

17

5. DISCUSSION

The main goal of this research was to investigate the effects of an affiliation motive, primed by social exclusion in an advertisement. This research began with two questions: What are the effects of seeing someone in an advertisement who is socially excluded on attitude toward the advertisement, product attraction, prosocial behavior, and emotions? And what is the

influence of perspective taking on these relationships? The results of these relationships were not all consistent with predictions. First, this research could not find evidence to conclude that social exclusion in an advertisement results in a more positive attitude toward the

advertisement. However, this research extends previous research about the effect of seeing someone in an advertisement who is socially excluded on product attraction. There is evidence to conclude that social exclusion in an advertisement results in a higher product attraction symbolic of group membership. Socially excluded participants were thus more likely than non-socially excluded participants to purchase a product that symbolized group membership, suggesting that excluded people are attracted to increase their chances of affiliation. In addition, there is not enough evidence to conclude that social exclusion in an advertisement leads to a higher product attraction of a package of pens as a practical product. Furthermore, the results did not indicated an effect of social exclusion on prosocial behavior. Besides, there is partial support to state that social exclusion in an advertisement results in emotional numbness. The main effect of social exclusion in an advertisement on positive emotions was significant, however, the main effect of social exclusion in an advertisement on negative emotions was not significant. Hereby, the fact that this research did not find a main effect for negative emotions can be explained by a lack of effects on emotions. Because participants were emotionally numb, they actually had no emotions and as a result, no effects were found on negative emotions. In conclusion, it could be inferred that numbness is

(24)

18

To answer the second research question, this research did not find an effect of the moderator perspective taking on attitude toward the advertisement, product attraction, prosocial behavior and emotions.

As explained above, the majority of the relationships were not shown significant or significant relationships showed contradicting effects. The first explanation is that the affiliation prime was probably not strong enough. In other words, it is possible that the advertisements did not produce reliable differences. Besides, although prior research demonstrated that the perspective taking conditions produce reliable differences (Galinsky & Moskowitz, 2000; Galinsky, Wang, & Ku 2008), one could argue that the perspective taking condition was not strong enough. Another explanation arises from the manner in which the experiment was conducted; participants voluntarily participated and could participate at their own computer in their own time. The participants probably did not have their full attention or were not fully motivated to participate in the experiment, which caused that they were not correctly primed by the affiliation motive. In conclusion, the priming procedure and perspective taking condition may not have been strong enough to make a difference between the groups.

Implications and Future Research Directions

Until recently, evolutionary models have been almost completely absent in research on social influence (Sundie, Cialdini, Griskevicius, Kenrick, 2006) and in research on consumer behavior and marketing more generally (Briers, DeWitte & Warlop, 2006). This research is one of the first to demonstrate the utility of evolutionary social psychology in marketing by showing that adopting an evolutionary approach can produce unique marketing insights. The findings of this research have theoretical and practical implications for advertising practice and the strategic placement of advertisements and products. Marketing communication

managers now know some effects of social exclusion in an advertisement. Depicting so meone in an advertisement who is socially excluded leads to product attraction symbolic of group membership, suggesting that this increases people’s chances of affiliation. Another

implication is that advertisements themselves might be used to elicit specific emotions in a strategic way. For example, social exclusion in an advertisement may partially lead to

emotional numbness. Emotional numbness likely functions as an immediate buffer that wards off potentially threatening aspects of one’s current surroundings.

(25)

19

social exclusion may depend on which fundamental needs are threatened (Williams, 2007). Self-threats resulting from social exclusion can produce both self-focused and prosocial consumer responses, depending on the situation, and the mechanisms underlying these effects. Lee & Shrum (2012) indicate different types of social exclusion, namely being ignored and being rejected, which can threaten different needs and produce very different outcomes. These findings have the potential to reconcile seemingly conflicting findings in the

(26)

20

REFERENCES

Bagozzi, R. P., and Moore, D. J. (1994). Public Service Advertisements: Emotions and Empathy Guide Prosocial Behavior, Journal of Marketing, 58, 56-70.

Baumeister, R. F. (1990). Suicide as escape from self. Psychological Review, 97, 90–113. Baumeister, R. F., and Leary, M. R. (1995). The Need to Belong: Desire for Interpersonal Attachments as a Fundamental Human Motivation, Psychological Bulletin, 117 (3), 497–529.

Berger, J., and Heath, C. (2007). Where Consumers Diverge From Others: Identity-Signaling and Product Domains, Journal of Consumer Research, 34, 121-34.

Biehal, G., Stephens, D. and Curlo, E. (1992). Attitude Toward the Ad and Brand Choice.

Journal of Advertising, 3, pp. 19 – 36.

Blackhart, G. C., Nelson, B. C., Knowles, M. L., and Baumeister, R. F. (2009). Rejection Elicits Emotional Reactions but Neither Causes Immediate Distress nor Lowers Self-Esteem: A Meta-Analytic Review of 192 Studies on Social Exclusion. Personality &

Social Psychology Review, 13(4), 269-309.

Bradley, S. D., Angelini, J. R., and Sungkyoung L. (2007). Psychophysiological and Memory Effects of Negative Political Ads. Journal of Advertising, 36(4), 115-127.

Briers, B. M. P., Dewitte, S., & Warlop, L. (2006). Hungry for Money: The Desire for Caloric Resources Increases the Desire for Financial Resources and Vice Versa. Psychological

Science, 17(11), 939-43.

Cialdini, R. B., Borden, R.J., Thorne, A., Walker, M. R., Freeman, S., and Sloan, R. L. (1976). Basking in reflected glory: Three (Football) Field Studies. Journal of

Personality and Social Psychology, 34, 366-375.

De Dreu, C. K. W., Beersma, B., Stroebe, K., and Euwema, M. C. (2006). Motivated

Information Processing, Strategic Choice, and the Quality of Negotiated Agreement.

(27)

21

DeWall, C. N., Baumeister, R. F., Gailliot, M. T., and Maner, J.K. (2008). Depletion Makes the Heart Grow Less Helpful: Helping as a Function of Self-Regulatory Energy and Genetic Relatedness, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34 (12), 1653–62. Faber, R. J., Tims, A. R., and Schmitt, K. G. (1993). Negative Political Advertising and

Voting Intent: The Role of Involvement and Alternative Information Sources, Journal

of advertising, 22(4): 67-76.

Fazio R. H., Sanbonmatsu D. M., Powell M. C., Kardes F. R. (1986). On the Automatic Activation of Attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 50: 229–238. Finlay, K. A., and Stephan, W. G. (2000). Improving Intergroup Relations: The Effects of

Empathy on Racial Attitudes. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 30, 1720–1737. Galinsky, A.D., Maddux, W. W., Gilin, D., and White, J. B. (2008). Why It Pays to Get Inside

the Head of Your Opponent: The Differential Effects of Perspective Taking and Empathy in Negotiations. Psychological Science. 19(4), 378-384.

Galinsky, A. D., Moskowitz, G. B. (2000). Perspective-Taking: Decreasing Stereotype Expression, Stereotype Accessibility, and In-Group Favoritism. Journal of

Personality & Social Psychology, 78(4), 708-724.

Galinsky, A. D., Wang, C.S., and Ku, G. (2008). Perspective-Takers Behave More Stereotypically. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, (95)2, 404-410.

Griscevicius, V. and Kenrick, D. T. (2013). Fundamental motives: How evolutionary needs influence consumer behavior. Journal of Consumer Psychology, (23)3, 372-386. Hampel, S., Heinrich, D. and Campbell, C. (2012). Is An Advertisement Worth The Paper It’s Printed on? The Impact of Premium Print Advertising On Consumer Perceptions.

Journal of Advertising Research, March, pp. 118 – 127.

Harris, M. B. (1977). Effects of Altruism on Mood. Journal of Social Psychology, 102, 197-208.

(28)

22

Hornstein, H. A. (1978). Promotive Tension and Prosocial Behavior: A Lewinian analysis. In L. Wispé (Ed.), Altruism, sympathy, and helping: Psychological and Sociological

principles. 177-207.

Kenrick, D. T., Griskevicius, V., Neuberg, S. L., and Schaller, M. (2010). Renovating the Pyramid of Needs: Contemporary Extensions Built Upon Ancient Foundations.

Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5, 292–314.

Khan Niazi, M.A., Ghani, U., and Aziz, S. (2012). The Emotionally Charged Advertisement and their Influence on Consumers’ Attitudes. International Journal of Business and

Social Science, 3(1): 307–320

Lee, J., and Shrum, L. J. (2012). Conspicuous Consumption versus Charitable Behavior in Response to Social Exclusion: A Differential Needs Explanation. Journal of

Consumer Research, 39(3), 530-544.

Lemer, M. J., and Meindl, J. R. (1981). Justice and altruism. In J. P. Rushton & R. M. Sorrentino (Eds.), Altruism and helping behavior: Social, personality, and

developmental perspectives, 213-232.

MacKenzie, S. B. and Lutz, R. J. (1989). An Empirical Examination of the Structural

Antecedents of Attitude Toward the Ad in an Advertising Pretesting Context, Journal

of Marketing, 53, 48-65.

Maed, N.L., Baumeister, R.F., Stillmann, T.F., Rawn, C.D., and Vohs, K.D. (2011). Social Exclusion Causes People to Spend and Consume Strategically In the Service of Affiliation. Journal of Consumer Research, 37(5), 902-919.

Maner, J. K., DeWall, N., Baumeister R.F., and Schaller, M. (2007). Does Social Exclusion Motivate Interpersonal Reconnection? Resolving The ´Porcupine Problem. Journal of

Personality and Social Psychology, 9(1), 42-54.

Manucia, G. K., Baumann, D. J., and Cialdini, R. J. (1984), Mood Influences on Helping: Direct Effects or Side Effects? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 457-464.

(29)

23

Merritt, S. (1984). Negative Political Advertising: Some Empirical Findings. Journal of

Advertising, 13 (3): 27-38.

Neuberg, S. L., Cialdini, R. B., Brown, S. L., Luce, C., Sagarin, B. J., and Lewis, B. P. (1997). Does Empathy Lead to Anything More Than Superficial Helping? Journal of

Personality & Social Psychology, 37(3), 510-516.

Neuberg, S., Kenrick, D. T. and Schaller, M. (2010). Evolutionary Social Psychology. In S. T. Fiske, D. Gilbert and G. Lindzey (Eds.), Handbook of Social Psychology (5th ed.), New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Parker, S. K., & Axtell, C. M. (2001). Seeing Another Viewpoint: Antecedents and Outcomes of Employee Perspective Taking. Academy of Management Journal, 44: 1085–1100. Smith, E. R. (1993). Social Identity and Social Emotions: Toward new conceptualizations of

prejudice. In D. M. Mackie & D. L. Hamilton (Eds.), Affect, cognition, and

stereotyping: Interactive processes in group perception, 287-351. San Diego, CA:

Academic Press.

Sundie, J. M., Cialdini, R. B., Griskevicius, V., & Kenrick, D. T. (2006). Evolutionary Social Influence. In Evolution and Social Psychology, Schaller, M., Simpson, J. A., & Kenrick, D. T., eds. New York: Psychology Press, 287-316.

Turner, J. C., and Reynolds, K. J. (2000). The Social Identity Perspective in Intergroup Relations: Theories, Themes, and Controversies. In R.J. Brown & S. Gaertner (Eds.),

Blackwell Handbook of Social Psychology: Intergroup processes, 133-152. Oxford,

England: Blackwell.

Twenge, J. M., Baumeister R. F., DeWall, C N., Ciarocco, N. J., and Bartels, J. M. (2007). Social Exclusion Decreases Prosocial Behavior, Journal of Personality and Social

Psychology, 92(1), 56–66.

(30)

24

Twenge, J. M., Baumeister, R. F., Tice, D M., and Stucke, T. S. (2001). If You Can’t Join Them, Beat Them: Effects of Social Exclusion on Aggressive Behavior, Journal of

Personality and Social Psychology, 81 (6), 1058–69.

Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief

measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality

and Social Psychology, 54, 1063–1070.

Weinstein, N., and Ryan, R. M. (2010). When Helping Helps: Autonomous Motivation for Prosocial Behavior and Its Influence on Well-Being for the Helper and Recipient,

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98(2), 222–44.

Williams, K. D. (2007). Ostracism. Annual Review of Psychology,58, 425–52.

Wilson, T. D., Wheatley, T., Kurtz, J., Dunn, E., & Gilbert, D. T. (2004). When to fire: Anticipatory versus post-event reconstrual of uncontrollable events. Personality and

(31)

25 APPENDICES

(32)

26

APPENDIX B – ADVERTISEMENTS

(33)

27

(34)

28

APPENDIX C – MEASURES

TABLE C1

Measures Attitude Toward the Advertisement with Aad-score

Statements Source

1 Good Bad Biehal et al. (1992)

2 Like Dislike Biehal et al. (1992)

3 Interesting Boring Biehal et al. (1992)

5 Informative Uninformative Biehal et al. (1992)

6 Pleasant Unpleasant MacKenzie, Lutz and Belch (1986)

7 Favourable Unfavourable MacKenzie, Lutz and Belch (1986)

8 Appealing Unappealing Hampel et al. (2012)

TABLE C2

Measures Product Attraction (Mead et al., 2011) Question

1 To what extent are you attracted to spirit-bands?

Totally unattracted Totally attracted

2 To what extent are you attracted to package of pens?

Totally unattracted Totally attracted

TABLE C3

Measures Prosocial behavior (De Wall et al., 2008) Question

1 How likely is it that you would give money to a homeless person?

Not at all likely Very likely

2 How likely is it that you would donate money to a fund for children with terminal illness?

(35)

29 TABLE C4

(36)

30

APPENDIX D - EXPERIMENT CONDITION A

Welkom bij dit experiment,

Mijn naam is Talisa Koopman, student Marketing aan de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. Voor mijn Master scriptie doe ik onderzoek naar het effect van fundamentele motieven op het hedendaagse consumentengedrag. Om hier inzicht in te krijgen heb ik een experiment opgesteld. Het invullen hiervan neemt maximaal tien minuutjes van uw tijd in beslag. Door deel te nemen aan dit experiment levert u een belangrijke bijdrage aan mijn scriptie. U zou mij er dus enorm mee helpen dit experiment volledig en zo eerlijk mogelijk in te vullen. De vragenlijst is volkomen anoniem. Met uw gegevens wordt vertrouwelijk omgegaan en deze worden niet voor andere doeleinden gebruikt.

Alvast hartelijk dank voor uw medewerking! Met vriendelijke groet,

Talisa Koopman

(37)

31

Hieronder krijgt u een advertentie te zien. Gelieve deze advertentie zo goed mogelijk te analyseren. Over deze advertentie krijgt u zo dadelijk een aantal vragen gesteld.

Deze advertentie vind ik:

Zeer slecht Zeer goed

Zeer vervelend Zeer leuk

Zeer oninteressant Zeer interessant

(38)

32

Zeer oninformatief Zeer informatief

Zeer onaangenaam Zeer aangenaam

Zeer negatief Zeer positief

Zeer onaantrekkelijk Zeer aantrekkelijk

Onderstaand wordt u twee vragen gesteld of u zich aangetrokken voelt tot een product. 1. Vindt u siliconen armbandjes aantrekkelijk? Dit zijn armbandjes die worden gebruikt

om een bepaalde statement te maken, laten zien dat je een actie ondersteunt, als aandenken of herkenningsmiddel. Neem bijvoorbeeld het LiveStrong armbandje die laat zien dat je de kankerstichting opgericht bij Lance Armstrong steunt. Zie

(39)

33

2. Vindt u een pennen pakket aantrekkelijk? Zie onderstaande afbeelding.

Stelt u zich voor, u heeft de mogelijkheid om iemand anders te helpen door geld te geven aan een dakloos persoon. In welke mate bent u bereid om geld te geven aan deze persoon? Zeer onwaarschijnlijk Zeer waarschijnlijk

Stelt u zich voor, u heeft de mogelijkheid om geld te doneren aan een fonds voor kinderen met een terminale ziekte. In welke mate bent u bereid om geld te geven aan dit fonds? Zeer onwaarschijnlijk Zeer waarschijnlijk

(40)

34

Onderstaand krijgt u en aantal woorden te zien die verschillende gevoelens en emoties

beschrijven. Lees ieder woord zeer aandachtig en noteer het cijfer dat op dit moment het beste bij uw gevoel/emotie past.

(41)

35

3. Wat is uw hoogst afgeronde opleiding? o Basisonderwijs o VMBO o Havo/vwo o MBO o HBO o Universiteit

(42)

36

CONDITION B

Talisa Koopman

(43)

37

(44)

38

(45)

39

(46)

40

Onderstaand krijgt u en aantal woorden te zien die verschillende gevoelens en emoties beschrijven. Lees ieder weer zeer aandachtig en noteer het cijfer dat op dit moment het beste bij uw gevoel/emotie past.

(47)

41

(48)

42

CONDITION C

Talisa Koopman

(49)

43

(50)

44

(51)

45

(52)

46

(53)

47

(54)

48

CONDITION D

Talisa Koopman

(55)

49

(56)

50

(57)

51

(58)

52

(59)

53